Wow, there is definately some heat in this thread.
For me (and I'm sure lots of people out there) it's not about home recording vs. pro recording (well, it is kinda) - but it's money. Recording is a hobby for me, and a hobby that generates 0 income. I use
a behringer v-amp 2, which sounds comparable to the pod 2.0 in my opinion. I know it's a behringer, so rag on me all you want, but it was also $100. I'm at a time in my life where I can't afford to spend even $250 on a used mesa head to get a better sound. It was pretty much 100 or less for electric guitar sounds (and I'm borrowing the guitar from my roommate). I just have other more pressing financial obligations at this time.
I know the sounds from the v-amp aren't the best I can get out of my house (which would make it home recording), but I think they are the best I can get for $100. After all, I truely am trying to get the best possible recording I can for my music. I would agree that a real amp sounds better. My roommate (who is lending me his SRV custom strat) plays it through a mesa boogie dual rectifier
blue angel 4X10, and for distortion runs through an all-tube overdrive pedal (forget the name - some custom thing ordered). I recorded several songs - one with the v-amp and one with the real amp (the real amp was recorded with a 57 into a dmp-3). If you go to the link in my signature, or here:
http://www.acidplanet.com/artist.asp?songs=261004&T=5863, you can hear them. "The Way It Has To Be" uses the v-amp 2, and "Something Better" uses the mesa. Judge for yourself. In my opinion, the mesa sounds warmer, smoother, and fuller, but "muddier", for lack of a better word. The v-amp sounds thinner, but "cleaner". After reading these posts about how some very much more experienced people than I feel that the other tracks suffer from these POD-esque sounds, it's no wonder that I'm never satisified with the vocal track in the song that uses the v-amp, while the vocals in "Something Better" are much better to my ears. Always thought it was a mic placement/vocal performance/eq type of thing, but maybe it's the v-amp. It's obvious that with better recording techniques, the mesa could sound much, much better--but if you add up costs of amps, mic's, mic pre's, etc, the v-amp is about $1500+ cheaper.
For me, it's like everything else in our materialistic society - it's all about money (or rather, lack of money, haha).
Anyway, I'm not trying to throw gasoline on the fire, just giving my 2 cents. In a perfect world I'd record the real amp, but my budget, and anybody who is in the house when I'm doing it won't allow it.
p.s. - I'm sorry this post didn't have much to do with the POD xt.